


Mendacity

by thegreatandpowerfultoaster



Series: Stardrop 'Verse [2]
Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Farm/Ranch, Gen, Romance is background, Stardew Valley AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-08
Updated: 2019-10-08
Packaged: 2020-11-27 11:01:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20947253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegreatandpowerfultoaster/pseuds/thegreatandpowerfultoaster
Summary: Peter Nureyev has a secret.





	Mendacity

**Author's Note:**

> n. The condition of being mendacious; untruthfulness.  
n. A lie; a falsehood.

Peter Nureyev has a secret. 

Actually, once he really gets to thinking about it, Peter Nureyev has a great deal of secrets, and out of all of them, this is a rather minor one. 

Not that it's unimportant, of course but compared to being the adopted child of an incredibly wealthy real-estate tycoon slash mob boss and a well-known author, this seems rather small.

It is rather small. Too small. He'll worry himself to death over this little secret.

_"Meow," _says his coat, and Peter manages a soft shushing noise as he picks it up and cradles it to his chest, peeling open the fabric to reveal two small blue dots and the tiniest of pink noses. 

"We ought to be quiet," Peter tells his secret sagely. "Juno will be back from checking his sprinklers soon. And then what will we do if you cry?" 

"Meow," it goes again, like it wants Juno to find out, and Peter isn't sure what to say. He keeps the coat close to his chest and heads downstairs, only to see Rita using the microwave. It sparks a couple of times and he heard some pops that probably shouldn't be there, but he convinces himself that she's just making popcorn and they probably won't blow up the house anytime soon.

"Oh, hey Mister Nureyev." She says, not looking up from her popcorn. He prays that she won't turn around and question him carrying around his coat in the excellent fall weather. She apparently doesn't have to look up. "Is that that kitty you found in the community center that you've been keeping a secret from Mister Steel?"

Nobody is good at keeping secrets from Rita. He repeats this small factoid several times before it fully sinks in and he can form words again. 

"It most certainly is. I believe that she must be hungry, so I came to make her a bottle. This is between us, isn't it Rita?"

The microwave doesn't so much as beep to tell her it's finished as it repeatedly screeches in pain. Peter likes to think that isn't just the dramatic bit of him talking.

She shoves a bite of microvaved delicacy into her mouth. "Sure. For the record, Mister Steel likes 'ta pretend he doesn't like kitties, but he does."

"I'll keep that in mind, Rita, but he has quite a lot on his mind recently and I think it's best if he doesn't have more on his plate. She'll just be my responsibility, until she can properly get around I think." 

If Rita knows, couldn't it be her job, too? The last week has been awfully exausting, doing this all on his own, and keeping it a secret from Juno.

He has a montage fill his head with worrying images of his darling baby kitten getting stuck in a chip bag somewhere, and decides that he isn't quite that desperate.

He's been hiding kitten formula on top of the fridge, where no one is apt to ever look, except the tallest two people who are frequently in their kitchen, which would be himself and Bartholomew Mercury. Mercury wouldn't tell either, for the same reasons Rita won't. 

Peter liked to call it honor among thieves. They wouldn't tell Juno about his kitten, and he wouldn't tell him about Mick dropping one of the plates Buddy had given them over the holidays that Juno so prized, or about the surprise party Rita was planning him.

He unwraps her from his coat, (now sitting on the dining table) and shakes the lukewarm bottle. Yes, hungry. That was all. And now they can go back to being near silent, and not alerting anyone to their presence. Peter likes that.

"Just a little longer, and then you'll be bigger and I can convince him you'll be useful. Okay?" 

She wiggles and tries to knead the coat. Good enough.

The closet (which is mostly Peter's to be honest) is barely shut again by the time he hears the front door open and close, and he waltzes downstairs to kiss his wife and wax poetic about how much he'd missed him in the fifteen minutes he was checking his garden.


End file.
